Best Simon Pegg Movies
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Having spent more than 25 years in the industry, Simon Pegg’s wildly successful career includes over 100 film acting credits. With such an extensive filmography, it can be daunting to rank his best works. Here are some of the best Simon Pegg movies you’ll ever watch.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
After Pegg’s Shaun of the Dead received critical acclaim, a reporter asked if he was going to leave Britain’s film industry to join Hollywood.
Lightheartedly, he responded, “It’s not like we’re going to go away and do, I don’t know, Mission: Impossible III,” randomly making up a film title.
Sure enough, Pegg did just that. He stars as Benji Dunn, a technician for the Impossible Mission Force, in the Mission: Impossible series.
Though his first appearance was more so in a supportive manner, Pegg’s role grew to be a major presence in Ghost Protocol and its sequels.
In this fourth installment, the President invokes Ghost Protocol as a result of the bombing of the Kremlin, where the Impossible Mission Force gets shut down and disowned by the U.S. Government.
Because the IMF is being blamed for the terrorist attack, Ethan Hunt and his team must clear the agency’s name without support from the United States.
Moving quickly to find the real terrorists, the rogue team finds themselves chasing down Hendricks, a dangerous man who has plans to use Russia’s arsenal of nuclear weapons to destroy the United States.
Find it on IMDb here.
Paul
Best friends and comic book enthusiasts Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are in the United States to visit the San Diego Comic-Con. Deciding to turn the adventure into a road trip, the sci-fi geeks tour southwestern America hitting the hottest UFO sites.
On a fateful evening while driving through a remote desert highway, the two spot a crash. When the duo pulls over their RV to help, their science fiction interests become reality: the driver is an alien named Paul.
After the initial shock, they agree to protect the sarcastic and vulgar extra-terrestrial from the FBI agents hunting him down.
Paul, written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, is a comedic parody of your typical science fiction films. The screenplay has won a National Movie Award, which is a British honor where winners are chosen via popular vote.
With voice work from big-name comedian Seth Rogen, Paul also saw great success in the United States. In this movie, Pegg plays a character that fans might agree is most fitting for him, and does so exceptionally well.
Find it on IMDb here.
Hot Fuzz
Being the second film of the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy, Simon Pegg brings us yet another over-the-top film.
This time, however, it’s an action-packed comedy. Deserving of its critical acclaim, Hot Fuzz is one of Pegg’s best films. Written alongside Wright, the two bring us a brilliantly written movie that almost parodies other action-packed cop films.
As the finest cop in all of London, Nicholas Angel makes all the other law enforcers look bad. With an extraordinarily high arrest record that proves his elite skills, Angel’s superiors at the London Metropolitan Police are looking to get rid of him to save themselves from further embarrassment.
They decide to “promote” him to a quiet and seemingly crimeless village of Sandford. There, he’s partnered up with Danny Butterman, an overeager police officer looking for action.
But when a series of crimes pop up around the village, Angel and Butterman dig around until they unveil a shocking conspiracy.
Find it on IMDb here.
Star Trek (2009)
Starring as Scotty in the revamped Star Trek franchise is no small task for an actor, but Pegg easily lives up to it.
Though not appearing until the second half of the movie, Pegg continued to successfully play the role of Scotty in the subsequent sequels.
This J.J. Abrams film boasts many awards and nominations, most notably winning an Oscar and a Saturn Award.
As a reboot of the original series, the 2009 Star Trek has James T. Kirk boarding the newly commissioned U.S.S. Enterprise with the hopeful crew members we’ve seen previously in the franchise.
While adventuring through the final frontier, Kirk and his team must fight Nero, the Romulan captain from the future, before he destroys the Earth.
Find it on IMDb here.
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is not your traditional zombie movie. In a satirical fashion, loveable losers Shaun and Ed take on the zombie apocalypse. With goals of being the hero and simply surviving to see the next day, Shaun, along with his friends and family, finds refuge at his favorite pub.
One of the Simon Pegg movies everyone’s seen—and the film that, arguably, jumpstarted his career—Shaun of the Dead takes the top of the list. The 2004 film boasts a 92% freshness rating on RottenTomatoes and has won several awards, such as the Bram Stoker Award for Best Screenplay and Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
Pegg not only stars as the main character, but also co-wrote the film. Though tackling the world’s end in possibly the least majestic way, Shaun of the Dead does not disappoint in bringing a comedic twist to an otherwise terrifying genre.
Find it on IMDb here.
Pegg has worked with incredible directors such as Steven Spielberg and George A. Romero, proving just how well-respected and versatile he is. Talented in both acting and writing, he’s one of those rare actors who understands his craft, inside and out.
Simon Pegg has had his struggles with addiction like many actors such as Danny Trejo and Nicolas Cage. But has overcome those battles to become the person he is today.
Fans certainly have an exhaustive supply of Simon Pegg movies to choose from. Undoubtedly among the most adored actors of this era, he’s been making countless people laugh since 1995, and thankfully has no plans to stop anytime soon.
So, after you’ve finished the Final Destination series and seen the most epic deaths, check out some of the works from Simon Pegg to add to your to-watch list.
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